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Social Networking: Why?

I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, ever since people kept asking me why I didn’t have a Facebook or other social networking account. My question is, what is the appeal of these social networking pages? Why do people feel the need to constantly tell the world what they’re up to? I’ve heard the excuse of being able to meet up with old friends, and various other things, but I know a lot of people that this isn’t the case. So, what exactly is the appeal?

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7 thoughts on “Social Networking: Why?”

The idea of Facebook, or any other social networking site, is to make human communication easier and more constant (hence the “social” in social networking). The reason so many people use Facebook is because most people actually enjoy seeing what their friends, family, and co-workers are doing. Facebook allows people to see their friend’s pictures, videos, and websites enabling them to share their experiences with their friends. The instant messaging and email on Facebook is another feature that a lot of people are attracted to. I, personally, use Facebook generally for the instant messaging system because so many of my friends use Facebook as well.

For me its more like a phone and whats great about it is it’s free and yes it lets me keep in touch and update with people I would have otherwise have had no access to. Put simply nothing keeps you as connected as Facebook does. True it has its issues but it is also one of the best social network.

So, it’s a matter of instant information then? Because a lot of what you two said can be done with these old things called e-mail and IMs. I guess that’s why I don’t comprehend their appeal. I don’t care what my friends are up to. If they do something interesting, they’ll tell me. No reason I should go and check on them like a babysitter.

Humans are social animals. We try to stay connected to those around us, as well as compete for rank within society. The more you post, the more everyone else sees you posting. They remember you, or even comment on things you have said. In regards to email and IM’s, Facebook is just more convenient. If three of your friends use aol instant messenger, and five of them use MSN messenger, but all 8 of them use Facebook, which client will give you the best ability to tallk to all of them? This is also a reason that there are not 10,000 successful social networking sites. The main reason people left Google+ was that not enough of their friends and family use google+, so It is easier to contact them through facebook.

I don’t actually use my facebook to tell people what I’m up to. I very rarely make status updates. The main thing I use it for is to upload photos I take that my friends or family want to see. I really don’t use it much at all, and yet I wouldn’t delete it. I would feel left out, I guess.